embroidered & quilted, 1800-1850, Persian

Prayer mat, light blue silk and cotton satin embroidered with silk in split stitch, backed with block-printed cotton, faced with black cotton, padded with a layer of woollen fibres and quilted. The embroidery was worked through all three layers.
Silk and cotton satin embroidered with silk in running [or back?] and chain stitch and couched metal thread and metal plate, quilted [not padded], backed with resist and block printed plain weave cotton and faced with silk satin.
Light blue satin ground with a border on four sides containing a green meander in chain stitch bearing dark red trilobed buds and white [faded from red] leaves edged in green. This band is edged either side with a line of green chain stitch. The central section is decorated with a lobed niche form outlined with laid red silk couched with a zigzag of 2 tarnished silver threads [strip wound around a white silk core] and edged with green chain stitch [A]. In side the niche form, the light blue ground is patterned with offset rows of a green curving plant stem with a red pendant blossom and white and pink leaves edged in green – all in chain stitch; the uppermost bud is infilled with either silver thread wound on a white silk core or a couched silver strip [plate] which is folded backwards and forwards. The whole of this section is quilted with a scale pattern with white silk. At the apex of the niche frame, a roundel outlined as [A] with an additional frame of 2 rows of tarnished silver thread also used to infill the roundel itself as ground for a 3 line inscription in black silk in chain stitch. The floral motifs were embroidered before the ground of the lower section was quilted.
The spandrels and side of the ‘niche’ is decorated with a lozenge lattice of green chain stitch, each lozenge containing a floral stem with a red blossom and green, white and pink either side and at the top of this roundel is a simple tri-stemmed flowering spray with a silver strip [plate] centre. And at the very apex a small cross form of red metal strip [plate], to act as a spangle.
Threads: 2S silk: green, red, black and pink [faded to white]. Silver strip S-wound on white silk core and silver strip [also known as plate].
Backing: mustard yellow cotton resist and block printed with an ovoid boteh in offset rows: white, green, red, purple and pink.
Facing: bias cut black satin.

Acquired by Major Robert Murdoch Smith from the private collection of a Frenchman living in Iran. He was born Jules Richard [1816-1891], arrived in Tehran in 1844 as a language teacher, converted to Islam taking the name Mirza Riza, was probably the first photographer in Iran and was the interpreter for Nasir al-Din Shah on his visit to Europe in 1873. He was also Murdoch Smith's principal contact with the Court.

This prayer mat is made from three layers of quilted fabric: a light blue silk and cotton satin backed with a printed cotton, which was faced with black cotton, and then padded with a layer of woollen fibres. The split stitch embroidery was worked through all three layers. It is not essential to add a decorative backing to embroideries but in this example the extra thickness increases the durability of mat and conceals the inevitable loose embroidery threads. The design printed on the backing is a popular motif based on the 'boteh', a Persian word for a flowering shrub. It was an important element in Persian textile design in the19th century and, with great skill, textile designers were able to create many different effects within the limits imposed by its rather rigid, curving form.

The prayer mat was acquired from the private collection of Jules Richard (1816-1891), a Frenchman living in Iran. He arrived in Tehran in 1844 as a language teacher, and converted to Islam, taking the name Mirza Riza. He was probably the first photographer in Iran and was the interpreter for the Shah, Nasir al-Din, on his visit to Europe in 1873.

833-1876